SALT LAKE CITY — Paris Hilton visited Utah’s Capitol Hill Monday to testify in favor of a bill to put more regulations on troubled teen facilities, including the one she claims she was abused at in Provo in the 1990s.
“I am proof that money doesn’t protect against abuse,” Hilton told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee. “The state of Utah must monitor the companies taking exorbitant amounts of money from desperate people and taxpayers. People are profiting off of the abuse of children. This is not right. This is so wrong.”
@ParisHilton now testifying. She says for the past 20 years she's had a reoccurring "nightmare where I"m kidnapped in the middle of night by two strangers, strip searched and locked in a facility." #utpol #utleg
— Katie McKellar (@KatieMcKellar1) February 8, 2021
SB127, sponsored by Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, seeks to put more government oversight on Utah’s youth residential treatment centers. It would require the treatment centers to document instances of physical restraints and involuntary confinement and submit monthly reports to the Utah Office of Licensing. It would also ban chemical sedation and mechanical restraints unless authorized.
The celebrity last year talked about the abuse she says she suffered at the Provo Canyon School in her documentary “This Is Paris.” Ahead of the documentary’s release, Hilton said in an interview with People magazine that “it was supposed to be a school, but (classes) were not the focus at all. From the moment I woke up until I went to bed, it was all day screaming in my face, yelling at me, continuous torture.”
Hilton told the magazine her parents sent her to a series of boarding schools claiming to focus on behavioral and mental development, including Provo Canyon School, after they became fed up with her “sneaking out and going to clubs and parties” while the family lived at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Hilton said the school put children in solitary confinement “sometimes 20 hours a day.” She said she felt “like a prisoner” and “hated life” while she lived there.
"This was my introduction to the state of Utah, but not the troubled teen industry," @ParisHilton says, describing how she'd been in other facilities before Provo Canyon School #utpol #utleg
— Katie McKellar (@KatieMcKellar1) February 8, 2021
“The staff would say terrible things. They were constantly making me feel bad about myself and bully me,” Hilton told People. “I think it was their goal to break us down. And they were physically abusive, hitting and strangling us. They wanted to instill fear in the kids so we’d be too scared to disobey them.”
Hilton told People she didn’t have plans to pursue legal justice, but that she’d focus on raising awareness about the types of practices used in such schools
“I want these places shut down,” Hilton told the magazine. “I want them to be held accountable. And I want to be a voice for children and now adults everywhere who have had similar experiences. I want it to stop for good and I will do whatever I can to make it happen.”
Provo Canyon School sent a statement to the Deseret News in August saying the school originally opened in 1971 but was sold by its previous owner in the year 2000.
“We therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to this time,” the school’s statement said.
“Provo Canyon School today is an intensive, psychiatric residential treatment center for youth between the ages of 8 and 18 that have special, and often complex, mental health and emotional needs,” the statement read. “We offer innovative, evidence-based therapeutic interventions, academic instruction and life-skills training tailored to the needs of each of our students. Leadership and staff are highly committed to providing effective treatment, compassionate care and a nurturing environment for the students and families we serve. Provo Canyon School is licensed by the State of Utah and the Department of Human Services; it is accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Commission and The Joint Commission.”
This story will be updated.
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